Guardians: Origins
by AuroraRose1959
Summary: Pitch Black is plotting to fill all the world with fear. Can a group of teens who've barely met work together to stop him? A Rise of the Brave Tangled Frozen Dragons fic. Includes some Jackunzel and Kristanna moments, hints of Eugunzel. Rated T because I'm paranoid.
1. Chapter 1

p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;""Ow! Hey!" Merida DunBroch laughed as her friend pelted her with a few snowballs. They'd been best friends since they were children, but no matter how many times Jack Frost had done this, snow and ice in summer had never stopped filling her with delight. She quickly scooped up some of the snow from the forest floor and hit him square in his slim chest./p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Jack raised his eyebrows impishly. "You're gonna get it now!" He raised his staff and suddenly snowballs began appearing out of thin air at an alarming rate.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;""No-ow!-fair! You can make as many of those as you want by the time I've-OUCH!-gotten enough for-okay, you're gonna pay for that one, you devil!"p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"The girl made a fantastic leap for Jack, red curls fllying, and tackled him to ground. Jack was about to flip her off of him when Merida suddenly placed a hand on his mouth. She'd heard someone coming.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Without speaking, they got to their feet and Jack flew them into a nearby tree, hoping its leaves would be thick enough to hide them. The last thing he needed was snow on the ground on a hot summer to day to be connected to him. Just as he was beginning to wonder if he should have taken them further away, Merida nudged him and he saw what she had heard a moment ago. Cantering past their tree, far below, was a black horse, riderless-but the strangest horse either had ever seen. Its coat was so shimmery, its movements so fluid, it didn't seem to be real.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Neither of them said anything for a minute after the creature had passed. Finally Jack breathed, "What was that?"p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;""It looked more wisp than horse. I've never seen the like." Merida's blue eyes flashed. "Want to find out?"p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Grinning, Jack flew her back down and they both raced after it.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"oooooooooop  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;"They couldn't track the horse by hoofprints, for it hadn't left a single one. It did, however, change the quality of the air slightly wherever it had been, making it appear almost wavy as smoke might, and it smelled vaguely of something decaying. After only about a quater of an hour, the horse's trail led them to a small cottage, hidden in a tight crag. Uncertain what to do, the two friends stopped for a moment to catch their breath. The windows were boarded up, the door heavily padlocked; it would have looked abandoned were it not for the steady stream of smoke coming from the chimney.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;"A piercing shriek broke their thoughts, then SMASH! the boards over the upper floor window suddenly went flying outward. Three black horses flew swiftly out. From the back one streamed dozens of feet of silky golden-p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;""Is that emhair?em" Merida asked incredulously./p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;""It's a girl!" Jack took off flying after the horses as desparate shouts of "Mother!" rang through the air.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;"Merida ran in pursuit, but was unexpectedly shoved hard to the ground from behind. Next moment she was looking up at a woman's pale face surrounded by thick black hair. The cold metal tip of a knife was pressed to her throat as the woman hissed, "Stay out of this, girl." With a swish of her dark cloak she was gone.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;"Gasping for air, Merida quickly got to her feet and tore after her. Stay out of it indeed.p 


	2. Chapter 2

div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Merida was gaining on the cloaked figure-a mere five or six yard away now. Suddenly, the woman made a sharp turn to the left into a thick growth of trees. Merida was sure that she turned into the same place, but there was no one in sight./div  
>div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"After a minute's more hard running without sight or sound of anyone, she slowed to a halt and began examining the ground and the surrounding trees and bushes, hoping for some way to track her. When she turned around, she found-"A wisp!" Hardly daring to breathe, she adjusted her bow and quiver slung over her shoulder and stepped gingerly toward the small blue light hovering before her. As she got closer, it vanished, and another appeared a few feet from her. She felt a rush of excitement and wonder running through her. Whatever she and Jack were getting themselves tangled up in, wisps could only mean that their fate had something big in store for them.div  
>div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress; text-align: center;"oooooooooodiv  
>div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"After following the wisps for about a mile, Merida started hearing shouts. She quickened her pace, making sure she still didn't outrun the trail of blue lights. As the trees thinned out at the edge of a road, the wisps disappeared entirely. An inky black horse ran past. That couldn't be good. Sure enough, as she ran into the road Merida saw five of the dark creatures surrounding a young man and woman. The man was holding something like a pickaxe, and the girl had a large branch in her hands; they looked exhausted. How long had they been fighting off these things?div  
>div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Merida quickly got her bow, pulled an arrow from her quiver, nocked it, and aimed . . . where was she supposed to shoot a horse that seemed more spirit than animal? Could it even die? Not knowing what else to do, she aimed at a horse's breast and released. The arrow was true to its mark, but passed right through and embedded itself in a tree. The horse seemed to explode in a cloud of black dust. Merida shot three more in rapid succession, and was aiming at the last one when it seemed to disintegrate of its own accord. The other girl was standing where it had been, branch poised for battle. She then lowered it and bounded over to Merida.div  
>div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Thanks, er-"div  
>div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Merida."div  
>div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Thanks, Merida. Those things came out of nowhere and they wear you out pretty quickly. Have you ever seen anything like those before? What are we gonna do?" She bounded back and forth between Merida and the tall guy with the pickaxe or whatever it was. "We've got to find out if there are more out there! Oh no, the town! We have to warn them! We have to-"div  
>div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Whoa, slow down there." The young man gripped her shoulders for a moment to stop the girl's constant movement. He took off his hat and ran a hand through his blond hair. "But, uh, back to your first question-" he turned to Merida. em"Doem you have any idea what those were?"/div  
>div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""I don't. I'd never seen one till today."div  
>div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"The girl nervously ran a hand over one of her orange braids. "This is really not good. Those were so scary! I mean, they didn't look scary, but for some reason just being around them made me feel . . . well, scared. Oh, I'm Anna. This is Christopher."div  
>div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""It's Kristoff."div  
>div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""Kristoff."div  
>div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""And yeah, I felt it too. It felt like some kind of magic-dark magic."div  
>div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Merida slung her bow back over her shoulder. "Okay, so we're dealing with black dust horses that can magically make you feel fear just by being around them." She wanted to find Jack, but he could fly a lot faster than she could run and could be anywhere by now. She thought of all the people living on the edge of the wood. "Let's go to town to warn everyone." She turned and ran down the road, Anna and Kristoff at her heels.div 


End file.
